


Don't Take My Promises Lightly

by BlueSpectre



Category: Hawaii Five-0 (2010)
Genre: Claustrophobia, Established Relationship, M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-02-06
Updated: 2018-02-06
Packaged: 2019-03-14 14:08:57
Rating: Mature
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,531
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/13591698
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/BlueSpectre/pseuds/BlueSpectre
Summary: Danny has something to confess, and there's no better place to spit it out than stuck in a powerless elevator.It's better than a soda can tab, at least.





	Don't Take My Promises Lightly

**Author's Note:**

> Based off a dream I had

“Danny, Danny I need you to listen to me, okay?”

He could barely hear him over the ringing in his ears. The panic had already set in deep by the time Steve cracked the glow stick. He pulled it right out of a pocket on his cargo pants because of  _ course _ Steve McGarrett had them at his disposal, the man lived and breathed danger, it was his bread and butter, what kept him going. The man recited survival tactics to put himself to sleep at night, he went over every possible scenario at the start of every investigation of what could go wrong in his head and prepared himself for it.

As much as Danny mocked him for it on the daily, he was always grateful for it when the time came for such tactics to be utilized.

“Danny, you’re going to be okay,” 

Everything in Danny’s head was screaming the opposite, startling the ex-Navy SEAL when he snatched the glow stick from him and gripped it so tight it threatened to burst in his hand. The detective steeled himself against one of the elevator corners, trying  _ not _ to pull off an impression of straight jacket psych ward patients.

The suspect that Danny and Steve had been following managed to beat them down to the lower levels and shut off power to the entire south wing of the building, causing the elevator to pull a hard stop. Steve had pried the doors open only to find the opening to the floor they were on was much too narrow for either of them to fit through, blocked by reinforced concrete. 

Broken and powerless elevators seemed to be a common thing when it came to Danny, as if the world itself was pointing and laughing at his claustrophobia, mocking that a grown man was afraid of such small spaces.  

“I need you to come over here,” 

“Yeah, I think I’m good huddling in my nice corner.” Danny said, his panic making his voice shakier than he would have liked. He hated having Steve see him like this, be it because there’s a bomb threatening to blow up in his face if he so much as breathed in too deep or stuck in an inert elevator with no way to escape, Danny hated the aspect of  _ anyone _ seeing him afraid, but it was worse with Steve. 

With everyone else, it was as easy as going home and forgetting about the event, pretending like it didn’t even happen. It was normally forgotten within the next day or so and Danny could easily go back to his cool ‘nothing bothers me, emotions don’t exist’ attitude. But with Steve, it wasn’t so simple. This was a man that Danny lay next to every night, the face that he saw every morning when he woke up, and perhaps the most  _ irritating _ thing about about Steve was the fact that he  _ didn’t _ just forget. He dwelled on it for days after the incident, making sure Danny was okay, if he was feeling alright, if there was anything he could do to help. 

A strange thing to complain about, but such was the mind of Danny Williams. He didn’t like to be reminded that he wasn’t impenetrable. 

“Danny I know this isn’t the ideal situation, but I need to see if I can get the top panel off so I can get us out of here,” Steven softened his tone then, seeing the looks of despair on his partner’s face, illuminated with no grace of flattery by the green glow of the stick. “Please, Danny.” 

The detective let out a shaky sigh and he pried himself from the safety of his corner and made his way to the middle of the elevator. Steve grabbed the glow stick from Danny’s iron grip, his hand lingering on Danny’s for a split, comforting moment before removing himself. 

“I need you to lift me up a bit so I can reach,” Steve mentioned, placing the stick between his teeth as he grabbed his partner’s shoulders before placing a foot on Danny’s interlocked hands. The detective has gotten stronger from when Steve first met him, where Danny would have struggled to lift Steve up before, he did it almost effortlessly now. It could very well have just be adrenaline, but Steve wanted to give his partner the benefit of the doubt. 

A well-placed swiss army knife on his vest allowed for easy access to a screwdriver. The screws of the panel were just a bit too small for the head of the screwdriver, but Steve didn’t have the option of taking that as a defeat. There was no way either of them could squeeze through the tiny space to the next floor and waiting here until someone figured out they were stuck wasn’t an option. The commander just needed to force the screw, despite the fact that it was practically rusted into place. It wasn’t an assuring thing that these elevators weren’t inspected often. 

Not that he would tell Danny that, the man had enough to be afraid of as it were. Steve wasn’t fond of the idea of adding ‘it might collapse due to poor maintenance’ to that list.

The first screw made an awful noise as it was freed from the rust and began to turn, Steve making quick work of it before tossing it to the floor and going straight for the next one. He could feel Danny shaking under him, while Danny may have gotten stronger, Steve still wasn’t exactly a feather. Strength, adrenaline, or not, Danny wasn’t going to be able to hold forever. Steve decided to try and distract him. 

“Remember when we were staking out the diamond thief in that old lady’s apartment?”

“The one with horrible cat figurine shrine?” Steve could hear the uneasy grin in Danny’s voice. “How could I forget such a memorable experience.” 

“Well I told you then that I used to play guitar, told you why I stopped, and after that case you went out and  _ got _ me a guitar.” 

“That you never played,” Danny snorted.

“That’s not true! I’ve picked it up a few times,” 

“Not that I’ve ever seen, pal. I think you’re just saying that to make me feel better.”

“Well, tell you what, after we get out of here, catch this scumbag and put him behind bars, I’ll take that guitar and play you a song. Anything you want.” 

“That just gives me an excuse to pick the most difficult song I can think of.”

“Gimme any song and I’ll learn it just for you, Danno.” 

“I’m  _ touched _ ,”

The tremble in Danny’s hold lightened a bit, so Steve kept up the distracting conversations as he moved onto the third screw. Just two more, halfway there and Steve could work on getting Danny out of here. He went over everything he could remember at the moment, every case that had as many goofy moments as serious, something to make Danny laugh. If there was  _ one _ thing that was more powerful than fear, it was laughter. 

And Steve wouldn’t lie to himself and deny that the man’s laugh made his heart swell. That stupid, obnoxious giggle. The snort he did if he laughed too hard, the denial of  _ ever _ doing such, even if it was pointed out right after it happened. The detective would rather boil his own hands than ever admit that he snorted when he laughed sometimes. 

But something happened as Steve began work on the fourth and final screw to the panel, the tremble in Danny’s hands returned tenfold and Steve found it difficult to balance. 

“Hang in there, Danny, I’m almost done.” Steve almost pleaded, having to put the glow stick back into his mouth to hold his free hand against the ceiling in an attempt to steady himself. 

“Steve I can’t--” Danny took - or at least attempted to - a deep breath. “I can’t breathe all of a sudden, man. I need to get out of here, I need to get out of here.” 

“And I’m gonna get you out of here, Danny, you just have to hold up a few more seconds, okay? I almost got the last--” 

“I can’t do it, Steve, I can’t breathe, my chest hurts, I just,” 

Steve felt himself start to go down as his partner lost his grip, Steve yelling out his name as he fell hard to the tiled floor. Everything spun for a moment after hitting his head. The glow stick hit him right in the face and caused him to grimace more before sitting up. When he was able to focus, Danny was sitting in front of him.

“I’m sorry, Steve, I’m sorry.” The man was in full panic, his body shaking more than Steve’s ever seen, sweat was dripping from his forehead with a vengeance and he couldn’t even open his eyes. “Someone get us out of there for the love of god!” 

Steve quickly grabbed his partner by the shoulders again, except this time he was trying to calm him, rather than climb him. No matter what he did or said, he couldn’t get Danny to open his eyes, it was like the man was trying to drown out the fact that he was trapped in a cold steel box with nothing but a dim glow stick as a light source. 

“Danny, hey, look at me, breathe with me, okay?” Steve instructed as he started to take a deep breath through his nose and exhaled through his mouth. It took a few tries for Danny to catch on, even more for the breaths not to be so shaken he may as well have been hyperventilating. 

“I’m  _ going _ to get you out of here, okay? You just have to trust me,” Steve placed his hands on either side of Danny’s face, using his thumbs to rub the sweat away from Danny’s brow. “I just need you to get me back up there, I’ve almost got the last screw out of the panel, then I can go up there and pull you up with me.” 

“Just… Just shut up and listen for a second,” Danny interrupted Steve’s ‘rant’, “There’s uh… There’s something I gotta get off my chest, man, and this is probably the worst place to do it,” Danny laughed then, nervous and full of fear, but a laugh, and Steve smiled at him. 

“If we don’t get out of this--” 

“We  _ will _ , Danny.” Steve corrected him.

“Shut up, would ya? Just listen, I don’t want things that I’ve been thinking about to go unsaid, okay? I don’t know if it’s the-- The fear or adrenaline or whatever, but I just need to get this out before I decide to shut it back in,” 

“Danny, what are you talking about?” 

“I love you, you schmuck, that’s what I’m talking about. Okay, see? I said it. Never had the courage to before but I guess fear and a sense of impending doom is a hell of a motivator.”

“Danny, I--” 

“Let me finish,” Danny loosened the death grip he had on Steve’s arms a bit, finally opening his eyes to look at his partner’s face. He couldn’t see much due to the low light, but he could tell he was surprised. 

“I don’t know how the hell you managed it, but you managed to get me to love you despite the fact that you irritate the  _ hell _ out of me,” 

They both laughed, Danny  _ almost _ snorted but fought it off to avoid giving Steve the satisfaction.

“And I swear to god, you get me out of this metal box from hell and I’ll frickin’ marry you.” 

Steve nearly choked, but kept his composure enough to offer a kiss to his panicked partner’s cheek.”Deal. Now can you help me back up to the panel?” 

Danny laughed as they both stood up, getting back to the position they were before. “I pour my heart out and all I get is ‘deal’. Putz.” 

“I love you too, you big baby. I was getting to that.” 

“Sure you were.” 

* * *

The others laughed as Steve told the story, Danny sitting there with a pout on his face that only became more sour when Chin elbowed him.

“So I get the panel off and climb up, and you would think I was leaving him there with the way he called after me.” Steve said, taking a swig of the beer given to him by Kamekona just a few minutes before. 

“Well excuse me for not being in the greatest place and was afraid you were going to leave me there.” 

“Aww, Danny,” Kono cooed with laugh, to which Danny responded with ‘don’t aw me!’ 

“So how’d you guys end up catching the suspect?” Chin asked after he was done laughing with everyone else.

“Oh this  _ animal _ ran after him and decided to drop kick him out of the window,” Danny snorted, shooting a glare at Steve who put his hands up in defense.

“To be fair, he landed in a dumpster. He was perfectly fine,” He grinned at Danny’s dismissive reply of ‘mhm,’ before grabbing the beer again. “Besides, he deserved it after what he put you through.” 

Some at the table booed, others strung a chorus of aw’s while Danny flipped his partner off.

“Hellova way to propose though, Danny, gotta say. Never heard of someone proposing in a broken elevator.” Lou teased as he took a swig of his own beer.

“Alright, one, it was  _ not _ a proposal, it was a promise. And two, the elevator was  _ not _ broken, it just wasn’t powered.” 

Steve listened to Danny and Lou bicker back and forth, Danny growing increasingly more offended by each word offered by the captain. He thought back, for moment, to the elevator once he opened the panel. Steve left out the part where Danny panicked more than he already had been when he saw Steve disappear into the darkness of the elevator shaft, and how he’s never had someone hold a tighter grip on his arm than when he pulled Danny out of the elevator. Also when they managed to hoist themselves onto the floor above, Danny laid flat on the floor a moment before saying, rather harshly; 

“Next time, we’re taking the  _ stairs _ .” 

Steve laughed to himself as he brought the bottle to his lips, watching as his partner picked a verbal fight with everyone sitting at the table. Danny’s confession left Steve a little weak in the knees once everything calmed down and his heart threatened to beat out of his chest. He had felt the same way for a while but had reserves about saying it. The McGarrett men were known for keeping things bottled inside and Steve didn’t want Danny to feel obligated in any way. 

But Danny had admitted to feeling the way he did for a while, and this only helped to keep the smile on Steve’s face. The detective stole a look over to Steve, who he noticed was smiling and offered one back before returning to his arguments at the table. 

_ “Get me out of here and I swear I’ll marry you.” _

Not a promise to take lightly, at any rate.

**Author's Note:**

> So I've been obsessed with Hawaii Five-0 since like mid December thanks to a friend of mine and the concept of Danny/Steve is really fuckin' cute to me okay.  
> For those who forgot, the 'soda can tab' thing in the summery refers to the fact that Danny proposed to Rachel with the tab from a soda can. I think he mentions it in the last episode of season 5


End file.
